Fire extinguisher



June 18, 1957 l. NURKIEWICZ FIRE EXTINGUISHER Filed Jan. 17, 1955INVENTOR .fc/mr/us qvqezmsw/cz ATTORNEY United States Patent 9 FIREEXTINGUISHER Ignatius Nurkiewicz, Colts Neck, N. J assignor to Stop-Fire, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y., a corporation of New York ApplicationJanuary 17, 1955, Serial No. 482,175

3 Claims. (Cl. 169-31) This invention relates to a fire extinguisher, ofthe type in which a cartridge of compressed gas is punctured to releasethe gas, as a propellent, for the fire extinguishing compound.

Such cartridges of compressed gas are well known, and they consist of astout cylinder, having at one end a mouth, which is completely sealed bya metal disc, which can be punctured, when it is desired, to release thegas by forcing the disc against a pin.

The extinguisher, itself, therefore, has a chamber in which thecartridge may be placed in readiness, and a needle adjacent to the disc,and the disc is punctured by forcing the disc against the needle by alever handle.

It is an object of this invention to provide a device in which theoperating handle, shaped to engage and hold a cartridge, may be moved toopen the cartridge chamber to receive a cartridge, and then be moved toand latched in the ready position, while guarding against the danger ofpushing the cartridge disc against the pin, during that movement. Inthis ready position the handle is held by catch against movement ineither direction, but, by releasing the catch, the cartridge may bepushed still further in, to release the gas.

Figs. 1, 2 and 3 are side elevations of an extinguisher head, embodyingthe invention, showing respectively the unlocked position, the positionduring the locking operation and the locked position of the controllever. Fig. 4 is a similar view showing, also, the cartridge holdingcylinder and cartridge in the discharging position. Fig. 5 is an endelevation, partly in section on the line 55 of Fig. 3.

In the drawing, the numeral represents a cylindrical container, adaptedto hold a powder, or other fire extinguishing substance, closed by ahead 12 screwed into it, as shown at 13. The head 12 is hollow, andhaving in turn screwed into it, a shell 14 forming with the hollow ofthe head a cavity, to receive a cartridge 15, charged with propellentgas, held under pressure by a sealing disc 16.

Mounted in the shell 14 is a plug 17, carrying a pin 18 and carrying,also, a resilient means, such as a rubber gasket 19 for resisting theinward movement of the cartridge.

A cover 20 is pivoted to the head 12, at one side, as shown at 21, andhaving at its other end a handle 22. The cover 20 is shaped so that itmay engage the top of the cartridge 15. It is the functioning of thecover 20 that it may be opened to permit insertion of the cartridge, andthen brought over the cartridge to hold it in place, as shown in Fig. 1,and it can then be depressed to cartridgeholding, or ready position, asshown in Figs. 2 and 3 and stopped there, without danger of puncturingthe sealing disc. It may then, when needed, be released from thestopping mechanism to permit it to be moved to the cartridge-dischargeposition of Fig. 4. The movement of the handle to discharge position isa continuation of the same downward movement to the latching, or readyposition. It is a feature of this invention to stop the downwardmovement at the latching position, in a manner to require manual releasebefore the continued movement to discharge can be made. The followinglatching mechanism has, therefore, been devised.

This mechanism comprises, primarily, a latch 24 pivoted at 25 on theopposite side of the head 12 from pivot 21, which latch extends upwardlyinto the path of the handle 22, and is spring pressed,counter-clockwise, toward the head 12 by a spring 26. This latch canextend through an opening 27 in the handle 22. It is provided with adownwardly facing surface 28 which forms the lower face of a pointedcatch 29, the upper surface is beveled, as shown at 30, to provide acam. This catch is on the near side of the latch, that is on its sidetoward the head. This catch is thus in position to engage the top faceof the handle at the edge of the opening 27 when the handle is inlatching position, as seen in Fig. 3, and it has an upwardly facingsurface, or stop, 31 on the opposite, or far side, of the latch fromcatch 29, in position to engage the under face of the outer edge of theopening as the catch 29 passes thru the opening, as seen in Fig. 2. Thelatch is undercut just below the catch 29 to provide a recess 32 of asize and shape to engage the handle at the near edge of the opening, andhold it against movement in either direction, as shown in Fig. 3.

The stop 31 is formed by cutting away that portion of the latch aboveit, and the transverse width of the latch from the point of the catch 29to the cut-away portion is substantially equal to the length of theopening 27, so that as the catch passes thru the opening, the stop 31 isin alignment in the direction of the movement with the body of thehandle beyond the opening 27. The portion of the latch below the stop 31is also of a width substantially equal to the length of the opening,thus, the handle has an outer position while the catch is passing thruit and then, when the handle engages stop 31 it snaps to an innerposition where the edge of the opening falls into recess 32. It must bemoved part way back to free this engagement, in order to be moved todischarge position of Fig. 4

By the above construction, the cover may be thrown back while a newcartridge is inserted, and then closed, as seen in Fig. 1. The handlemay then be squeezed, whereupon the cam surface on top of the catchpushes the latch, to permit the handle to be moved down to stop 31. Whenthe handle is released the latch swings in, to cause the edge of theopening to enter recess 32.

A handle 33 is provided, extending up from the latch, which may begrasped to pull the latch back, so that the handle 22 may be moved todischarge position.

A lower handle 34 is also provided at 24 to co-operate with handle 22,so that the latter may be operated by the hand which grasps it.

It will be observed that the lower edge of the recess 32 is below thestop 31 so that on pulling back the handle 33, preparatory todischarging the contents of the cartridge, the stop 31 will be above theedge of the handle 22, and the caps 24 can, therefore, not be removedfar enough to cause the handle 22 to again strike the stop 31. In thisway, when the emergency comes to use the extinguisher, there is nolikelihood that the handle 22 will be blocked by the stop 31, whichwould interfere with the immediate use of the device.

What is claimed is:

l. The combination with a fire extinguisher of the type having acontainer for a fire-extinguishing substance and a cylindrical headadapted to contain a cartridge of compressed gas held within said headspaced from a disc piercing pin, and having a handle pivoted to saidhead for holding said cartridge therein, with a latching mechanismcomprising a spring pressed latch pivoted to said head and having apointed catch in position to pass thru an opening in said handle, theupper surface of said catch being downwardly inclined to serve as a camengaging the side of said opening and the undersurface being adapted toengage over said side to retain the handle in cartridge retainingposition, a stop upon said latch opposite said catch in position toengage the handle to stop its. movement at the cartridge retainingposition and thereafter by the spring actuated movement of the latch torelease said handle at said stop at cartridge retaining position, andmanually releasable means for holding said handle in cartridge retainingposition against further downward movement.

2. A device according to claim 1 having a recess on said latch beneathsaid catch in position to receive the edge of the opening in the handlewhen the latch moves the stop out of engagement with the handle wherebywhen the latch is moved to cartridge retaining position it will bestopped and retained in that position by engagement with said recess andcannot be moved to cartridge piercing position until the latch ismanually moved.

3. The combination with a fire extinguisher of the type having acontainer for a fire-extinguishing substance and a cylindrical headadapted to contain a cartridge of compressed gas held within said headand hold it spaced i from a disc piercing pin, With a latching mechanismcomprising a handle pivoted to said head for holding said cartridge inposition, a spring latch pivoted to said head in position to pass thruan opening in said handle, said latch comprising a body portion and ahead portion, said head portion having a cam surface in position toengage the side of said opening and move the latch against the pressureof its spring and having an undersurface adapted to engage the upperside of the edge of the opening to retain the handle in cartridgeretaining position and the body portion having an upwardly facingprojection on the edge opposite said head in position to stop the handleat cartridge retaining position when the latch is moved by the action ofthe handle upon the cam surface, and said latch having a recess beneaththe catch for retaining the handle in cartridge retaining position assoon as it is released by the cam surface.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,530,583 Nurkiewicz Nov. 21, 1950 2,533,685 Nurkiewicz Dec. 12, 1950

